The Puzzling Trinity

Albrect Durer achieved the highest woodcut artistry with his picture of the Holy Trinity. God the Father receives God the Son as the sacrifice of the world’s sins, while God the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, hovers over them. Angels hold the various instruments of the Lord’s torture and execution. Left: The cross, crown of thorns, and whip. Right: Hyssop branch with the sponge and the post where Christ was beaten. Durer deeply admired Martin Luther and was won over for the Lutheran Reformation.

Augustine (an early church father), while puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, was walking along the beach one day when he observed a young boy with a bucket, running back and forth to pour water into a little hole. Augustine asked, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “I’m trying to put the ocean into this hole.” Then Augustine realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind.

The doctrine of the Triune God is puzzling. It is a mystery. It has been for centuries and always will be.

The Bible does not use the words “Triune” or “Trinity” to explain our three-in-one God. In fact, the Bible does not try to “explain” the Trinity at all. It just presents this mysterious doctrine as a fact and moves on. We either accept it with faith or we reject it out of unbelief.

The Sunday after Pentecost is always celebrated as Trinity Sunday. On that one Sunday of the year we confess the Athanasian Creed.

Because a long list of Trinitarian dogma can make a person’s brain hurt, I offer the creed below, with brief words of explanation. May we continue to marvel at the puzzling, beautiful, divine mystery of our triune God -Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Words of the Athanasian Creed are in bold, with words of explanation in normal font.

Whoever wishes to be saved, must above all else, hold to the true Christian faith. Whoever does not keep this faith pure in all points will certainly perish forever. Now this is the true Christian faith:
You cannot be a Christian unless you believe in the Triune God. All those religions which pay lip-service to God, but discount Jesus as the Son of God and Savior, are all heathen religions. Their followers will not be saved.

We worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, without mixing the persons or dividing the divine being. For each person – the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is distinct.
We don’t mingle the three individual persons like stirring together drink powder, sugar, and water into a batch of Kool-Aid; each person of the Trinity remains independently intact to contribute uniquely to our faith and salvation. Neither do we slice God into three different pieces so that each of the persons is a third of God; we don’t worship demi-gods or deities who have the potential to become more divine.

But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory and coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; The Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite; The Father is eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal; And yet there are not three who are eternal, but there is one who is eternal, Just as they are not three who are uncreated, nor three who are infinite, but there is one who is uncreated and one who is infinite.
Our Triune God did not ever begin and so cannot contain design flaws. He is eternal so He will never retire. Each person of the Trinity is without beginning or end. The Son was not born into existence on Christmas Day. The Son of God always has been and always will be. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1) He took on human flesh in His incarnation. The Holy Spirit did not suddenly appear out of nowhere on Pentecost. He has always been active. “The Spirit was hovering over the waters [of creation]” (Genesis 1:2).

In the same way the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty; Yet they are not three who are almighty, but there is one who is almighty.
Our triune God is never in a situation that is out of His control. Jesus has just as much power as the Father. The Spirit has just as much power as the Son.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. Yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.
The triune God simply doesn’t add up according to the limits of our human understanding – which is exactly what we want as the object of our faith and hope. If we are limited to what we can understand, then our unsolvable problems are not going to be solved, and our sins, our death, and the powers of hell will have their way with us. We want a God whom we cannot completely understand. So He can do for us what we could never decide, design, or do on our own.

For just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually to be God and Lord, So the true Christian faith forbids us to speak of three Gods or three Lords. The Father is neither made nor created nor begotten of anyone. The Son is neither made nor created, but is begotten of the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And within this Trinity none comes before or after; none is greater or inferior, But all three persons are coequal and coeternal, so that in every way, as stated before, all three persons are to be worshiped as one God and one God worshiped as three persons.
Christians are not polytheistic in our faith. We do not worship many gods. We worship one God who presents Himself to us as three distinct persons.

Whoever wishes to be saved must have this conviction of the Trinity.